C/C++ programmers to use interactively for testing logic, system
calls, and prototyping.

Writing software test scripts.

Redundant copy backups, software install, and verification scripts.

As a find replacement.

Whither Hawk?

Hawk is an alias for Ftwalk, which causes it to
process input files (like awk), instead of searching
file trees.

One possible future direction for Ftwalk would be to
assume a more general identity as Hawk. (If so, expect
to see a saxophone logo, in contrast to the more obvious
allusions.)

The State of the Project

Hawk / Ftwalk was developed mostly in 1994-1996, when
it evolved from a flexible file search tool (a find
replacement) to a general purpose script language (a perl
wannabe). Since 1996, it has been sporadically maintained. In
a nutshell, it got too big for one person to maintain, but it
never attracted more people to support it.

At this point, there is no chance that Hawk might ever
seriously compete with the likes of Perl or Python --
one glance at the contributed libraries, applications, and
available documentation shows the scale of such an effort.
At most, Hawk might be an idiosyncratic personal tool.
On the other hand, we all have our idiosyncrasies.

It should be obvious that the future of Hawk / Ftwalk
depends on user interest and participation. The present
intention is to scale work back to be Linux-only, and to
limit the compiler to the latest g++. This isn't carved
in stone, but it will make the project more manageable. The
planned applications focus is on:

Participation

Hawk / Ftwalk is your software. If you see any need or
value in it, you can use it, you can work on it, you can borrow
from it, you can take the whole thing over and run with it.

On the other hand, this software hasn't been actively developed
for quite a while now. The mail lists have mostly become spam
magnets. If you need to get in touch with the author, go to
www.tomhull.com and look around for further directions.